Judging Brevard's winners and losers in the news

The city of Rockledge dedicated a park in honor of Dick Blake, a longtime city councilman, on Saturday.

Thumbs up: To Brevard County school finance officials for moving to refinance construction debt to save anywhere from $800,000 to $3 million a year during the next three years. The possibility could change recommendations about what programs or schools to cut or save on the way to paring about $30 million from operations. News broke the same day the school board was to consider closing four schools to save $3.9 million. Better late than never.

Thumbs down: To the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Congress for twice rejecting Florida's application for funds to cope with damage to beaches and public facilities from Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Isaac. In Congress, as much as $2 billion for repairs in Florida and other southeastern states was criticized as "pork" and deleted. Yes, New York and New Jersey suffered worst in 2012, but they weren't the only ones hit.

Thumbs up: To Gov. Rick Scott for changing course and recommending up to 14 days of early voting before the next election to shorten lines on Election Day. Two years ago, Scott signed a bill reducing the number of early-voting days from 14 to eight. Scott wants the Legislature to give local election supervisors flexibility to set the number of early voting days, up to 14. He also said early voting should be allowed the Sunday before Election Day, which was not the case in November.

Thumbs down: To online dating service SeekingArrangements.com, "the world's largest Sugar Daddy website," for its program that pairs struggling college girls with older men willing to fund their educations. Its list of the top 20 fastest-growing "Sugar Baby Schools," released Jan. 19, lists the University of Central Florida as No. 4, with 221 coeds signed up. The University of South Florida (with 212), Florida International University (187) and Florida State University (111) also make the list. "It's tough," Said CEO Brandon Wade. "Because of recent tuition hikes, the college experience has become greatly unbalanced."

Thumbs up: To local "legend" Dick Blake, a former longtime educator and coach who has served on the Rockledge City Council for nearly 37 years. Blake was honored Saturday during a ceremony dedicating a city park in his name. About 200 people turned out to honor the 79-year-old Rockledge native. Blake was the first black principal of Cocoa High, a post he held for 22 years, and the first black person elected to the Rockledge City Council. Some of Blake's former classmates, students and colleagues attended the ceremony.

Thumbs down: To former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, who was indicted by a grand jury on 21 federal corruption charges. The indictment says the two-term mayor awarded lucrative city contracts in exchange for more than $200,000 in kickbacks and trips to Hawaii, Jamaica and Las Vegas. Current Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who succeeded Nagin in 2010, said the indictment "alleges serious violations of the public's trust." A city hall corruption investigation already has resulted in guilty pleas by two former city officials and two businessmen.

Thumbs up: To SpaceX, whose Merlin rocket engines appear to have passed muster with NASA in preparation for a March 1 supply mission to the International Space Station. On Oct. 7, one of the Falcon 9 rocket's nine engines shut down, as programmed, due to a technical glitch. The next set of engines appears "good to go," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's station program manager.